preg match pattern

grantiago

using preg match how can I pull out the following values1850 and 4.79, from the following text?

$usgs = 'agency_cd site_no dd_nu parameter_cd result_dt result_va result_cd result_md 5s 15s 2n 5s 12d 12s 2s 12d USGS 13235000 01 00060 2009-04-24 17:30:00 1850 USGS 13235000 02 00065 2009-04-24 17:30:00 4.79'

I just can't figure out the pattern syntax. I've tried for hours. here is what I have:

$looksf = '/:00 (.*)$/';
preg_match($looksf, $usgs, $sfmatch);
echo $sfmatch[1];

I can get this to work if I just pull one set of data at a time with get_file_contents, but it seems to be very slow. I'd like to pull all the stations at once and then just print them in order.

thanks

NogDog

Simplest thing I see is:

preg_match('#(\d+)\s+USGS\s.*\s(\d+\.\d+)$#', $usgs, $matches);
echo $matches[1].', '.$matches[2];

If you have multiple lines where each is separated by a newline ("\n"), you could do a match_all something like:

preg_match_all('#(\d+)\s+USGS\s[^\n]*\s(\d+\.\d+)(\n|$)#', $usgs, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
foreach($matches as $match)
{
   echo $match[1].', '.$match[2]."<br />\n";
}

grantiago

thanks for helping out. the first pattern doesn't return anything.

Could you take a minute to explain the characters in the expression or point me to where I can learn a little more about setting up my own patterns.

in english -- the selection should start after any occurrence of 0:00, space, then select any number of digits, periods, or commas, and end the selection with the next space or the end.

I'm trying to work this out myself but....

thanks

NogDog

PCRE pattern syntax
PCRE pattern modifiers

nrg_alpha

Additional resources:

regular-expressions
webtoolscollection
Mastering Regular Expressions